The US Surf Ski Championship has just been held today in San Francisco with South Africa's Sean Rice taking out a close victory in a sprint finish from Jasper Mocke (SA) and Veteran Champ, Clint Robinson (Queensland, Australia) in 3rd.

The big news from Team Vaikobi is that our young champion from North Carolina, Austin Kieffer has emerged from a solid year of training to be the 1st Placed US Athlete and finished 5th overall, just behind Dawid Mocke from South Africa.

To be the fastest US Surfski paddler at the nationals has been Austin's goal all year and to achieve it along with a Top 5 finish is outstanding. Watch this space as this kid has just started!

Pic: Austin will be smiling more than usual tonight!

The other Vaikobi Champion on the race track was Michael "Boothy" Booth who has barely paddled a surfski for the past three months due to his commitments with the Australian Sprint Kayaking Team, who finished a solid 7th place overall. Well done Boothy and good to see back on the Elite Glide.

Competitors raced over a 28km course from Muir Beach (NE side of the Golden Gate Bridge) down into SF Bay, under the GG Bridge, past Angel Island and finishing at Berkeley Pier in light wind conditions but with typical SF chop generated from currents and shipping traffic.

At this stage, no news has emerged on the Womens results. We will update when we know.